Room for One More on Valencia? Borderlands Cafe Opens

Borderlands Café on Valencia Street doesnt have Wi-Fi, they don’t make sandwiches and the owner claims their espresso doesn’t compare to a competitor’s just blocks away.

“We are not about producing the perfect cup of espresso, if people are looking for that I highly recommend they check out Ritual,” Alan Beatts, the owner of the café said. “I can think of at least four delis that make phenomenal sandwiches.”

What they do offer is direct trade coffee from Ecco, imported English tea and a wide variety of magazines.

Plus the lack of Wi-Fi that creates an environment where people can actually talk to each other.

Formerly an upholstery store, Borderlands Café is a project three years in the making. Beatts decided to open a cafe because although his store does fine for now, he doesn’t see bookstores as a viable business in the future. What he does see in the future is the possibility of merging both.

Even though Borderlands Café is not the first without Wi-Fi, Beatts is breaking away from the trend of shops installing it. Instead he is joining those who are turning vacancies that were once retail spaces into restaurants and café

s.

Dairo Romero, the community organizer for the Mission Economic Development Agency and someone who studies such trends, said there is an increase of storefronts becoming restaurants and cafes.

Mission Street is seeing spaces that used to house furniture stores or galleries turn into restaurants while at least two on Valencia Street have become coffee houses, including Borderlands.Read more here.